1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic document request/supply method, and more particularly, to an XML-based electronic document request/supply method.
2. Background of the Related Art
In recent years, an extensible markup language (hereinafter, referred to as “XML”) is widely used to create electronic documents. The utilization of XML increases rapidly throughout the world, and government and public offices as well as general enterprises are increasingly introducing the XML. These electronic documents are generally created on the basis of a syntax prescribed by each organization.
XML-based electronic documents are often managed in a client/server structure that stores the documents in the server and provides desired electronic documents according to the user's request. Such a client/server structure is illustrated in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the client/server structure that requests/supplies a general XML-based electronic document. As shown in FIG. 1, the client is a document requester/user side and the server is a document provider side. Accordingly, if a system requesting and using a document has functions of storing and providing the document at the same time, the system can simultaneously act as the client and the server according to its role.
A language fox searching XML documents includes XML query language (XQL) and XQuery. These search languages are widely used to search XML documents stored in an electronic document repository of the server and accept/provide a result in a form of XML document desired by the requester.
However, the related art XML electronic document request/supply methods and apparatus have various disadvantages. In a related art system that provides a document in accordance with a user's request, there does not exist a separate expression method for notifying only of the modified or added content of a document. Hence, in order to provide information on the modified or added content of the document, the related art system has a drawback in that it has to send the overall content of the document containing the repeated content (e.g., unchanged) which was initially sent.
The above references are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.